1st and last time coming here. I was looking for larger, better Halloween stores other than Spirit,…read morethat may be open all year. Gasoline Alley was one of the recommendations. So, I drove on down.
The employee was a heavier set guy. He walked into the store a few minutes after we did and he went to the front counter. So, I walked up to him and was greeted. Told him i was looking for a specific type of jacket, which was a steampunk style jacket. the ones ive seen at Spirit look kind of cool, but never fit. I also told him kind of any long trenchcoat style jacket would work. They did not have what i was looking for and i was told to come back closer to Halloween when they get the Halloween stuff. Ok, I thought this was a year round place, guess not, but no big deal. Well, we did find a long trenchcoat style jacket that worked. There were two prices on the tag, so i asked him about the pricing since i had no clue why there were two. He said thats a rental. He said almost everything in there is rentals. Ok, fine, even Keith's i had no clue about this before coming in, but no problem.
Here's the parts where the ONE STAR comes in. I did not know when i came in, but there was another customer in the store behind a partial wall from where i was. So he was fairly close, but I couldn't see him. At one point the amazing employee walked back to that guy and made some snide comment about "steampunk boy over there" to the customer. Sounded to me like they knew each other, at least somewhat. Thats when i saw the customer come around the other side of the wall trying something on. He to made some comment that i dont recall. Well, getting ready to leave, the employee comes back and tries to take me to the hats. He told me i needed a hat. I said no thats fine, I'll be wearing a mask so theres no need for a hat. He seemed to positively acknowledge that, but then he opened his mouth again and was a little nasty telling me if im wanting a steampunk jacket i will need a hat. So basically i reiterated what i had told him but was much more stern and told him im good.
So heres the pros and cons of this place.
PROs - A ton of costumes.
CONs - Nasty employee. Place is WAAAYYYY too small for the amount of crap they have, it's hard to walk in there in some spots. Employee not very helpful and not very knowledgeable.
Reason for ONE STAR? Nasty employee. Keeping in mind this was my first time here, with my kid. Would have looked around for a while longer and possibly found something, or something for my kid, but not after the way this guy treated me. Also, if you are mostly rental, but have some items for sale, wouldn't it make sense to have a small section for the items that are for sale? I mean, if that was the case, I easily could have looked in the for sale area (which there isnt one) and seen if i could find something or not.
BOOOOO for Gasoline Alley. If you want the rental and want no help, go here. Otherwise, maybe check out Halloween Boutique in Costa Mesa, Triangle Square. Just place, organized and way more selection.
